Clothesline assembly



Aug. 30, 1960 M. BERG CLOTHESLINE ASSEMBLY Filed May 21. 1958 INVENTOR.

MAR 7'//V 54' R6 CLOTHESLINE ASSEMBLY Martin Berg, 143 W. 29th St, New York, N.Y.

Filed May 21, 1958, Ser. No. 736,849

1 Claim. (Cl. 211-1151) The present invention relates to a portable clothesline assembly and more particularly to a miniature clothesline, which may be used in the bath room and in similar restricted enclosures.

It is an object of the present invention to provide means Q facilitating the attachment of a clothesline to curtain rods,

towel holders and similar anchorage, whereby the clothesline may be suspended in horizontal direction and a predetermined distance between one location of a support rod and another location of the latter, or may extend from one of said locations in vertical direction to the support rod or like anchorage, selectively.

It is another object of the invention to provide means affording great versatility in adapting the clothesline assembly to various useful applications, such as hanging up of stockings, short as well as lengthy lingerie pieces successively and in superposed position, if desired.

t is still another object of the invention to provide means rendering the possibility of storing away the clothesline assembly together with the clothespins employable therewith within a greatly reduced space, so that such assembly may be carried in the pocket book of a person or may be readily accommodated in a drawer or like container.

Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide means conducive to a simple and inexpensive clothesline assembly in which the clothespins may form parts of the attachment of the clothesline to a suitable support or anchorage.

These and other objects of the invention will become furti er apparent from the following detailed description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, showing a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a perspective view of the clothesline assembly applied to a support rod.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the clothesline assembly in a different position of application to said support rod.

Fig. 3 shows in perspective and on an enlarged scale a clothespin employable in the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a clothesline assembly in a somewhat modified form and applied to a support rod.

Fig. 5 shows a clothesline assembly pursuant to the present invention in a further modified application on a rod.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, there is shown a clothesline assembly 16 looped onto a rod support 11, from which may be suspended a shower curtain or the like.

The clothesline assembly consists of a line or cord 12 having knots 13, 14.- at opposite ends. These knots are inserted in the slotted ends 15, 15a of clothespins 16, 16a.

Fig. 3 shows details of clothespin 16 which corresponds to clothespin 16a. The clothespin 16 has handle portions 17, 18 and a leaf spring insert 19 extending from jaw 20 to opposite jaw 21, so that upon pressing of the handles 2,950,824 Patented Aug. 30, 1960 ire 17, 18 in the direction of arrows A (Fig. 3), the jaws 20, 21 will be opened against the action of leaf spring 19 in the direction of arrows -B. At least one of the handle portions 17, 18 or both are provided with openings 22, 23 at the slotted ends 15 for anchoring the knotted end 13 of the clothesline 12.

Between jaws 2t) and 21 extends an opening 25 which is somewhat smaller in diameter than that of the clothesline 12.

As can be further seen from Fig. 3, the U-shaped leaf spring element 19 is inserted in respective recesses 19a, 19b of jaws 2d, 21 and may be partly visible on the outer side of the clothespin 16.

In order to facilitate guidance of the jaws 20, 21 during movements and compression of handles 17, 18 inter-fitting formation 24 is provided, so that the jaws 20*, 21 will always be opened and closed in opposed directions.

In the example shown in Fig. 1, the clothesline 12 is anchored at 15 within the respective slot 22 and the clothesline then looped around rod 11 at 26 and then clamped between the jaws 20, 21 in opening 25. The same mode of operation is carried out with the clothespin 16a as may be readily apparent, so that the horizontally extending part ltla of the clothesline may be used for suspending lingerie and other articles to be dried.

Fig. 2 shows support rod 11 with clotheslines 12 and 12a, whereby the left hand part of the clothesline remains in its position with the clothespin 16 closed onto bight portions of the clothesline 12 at 25 which in this particular case extends downwardly and substantially perpendicular to rod 11 as may be visualized from Fig. 2.

In the same manner clothesline 12a is anchored and held on support rod 11 a predetermined distance from clothesline 12, a clothespin 16b being employed to tighten loop 26:: of the clothesline 12a onto support rod 11.

It is to be noted that as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the clothesline loops 26 and 26a are not tightened against the support rod 11 which, however, can be easily accomplished as is well understood.

Reverting again to Fig. 2, between the downwardly extending clotheslines 12 and 12a may be engaged a plurality of further clotheslines such as clothesline 12b which is anchored in the same manner as hereinabove described at 343 and 31 of clothespins 32, 33.

Fig. 4 shows the support rod 11 with a clothesline 35 anchored at 36 to a bail-shaped or -U-shaped wire or like member 37 looped around rod 11 and then anchored by means of clothespin 38 in opening 39 thereof, whereby the diameter of opening 39 is equal or somewhat smaller than the wire of bail member 37. From the hooked end 37a of bail member 37 extends clothesline 35 through recess or opening 4-0 of clothespin 35. In this particular instance the opening 40 is not slotted as in clothespin 16 as hereinabove referred to.

Fig. 5 shows the support rod 11 engaged by a wire bail-shaped or U-shaped member 59 provided with a loop end 51 in which the knot 52 of clothesline 55 is anchored, clothesline 55 extending downwardly and substantially in perpendicular direction to rod 11.

Clothespin '53 in this instance is engaged with a further clothesline 55a, frictionally engaged in opening 54 of clothespin 53. The clothesline 55 in this particular instance is threaded through hole 56 of the clothespin 53 to guide and to direct clothesline 55.

As can be seen from Fig. 5, the clothesline asssembly consists of two clotheslines 55, 55a extending in perpen dicular direction to each other and to the support rod 11.

It goes without saying that the clothesline assembly as in Fig. 5 may be duplicated along rod 11 and then used for various purposes to engage different lingerie and other articles of apparel of different length and width,

3 so that the versatility of the clothesline assembly may be considerably enhanced.

It can be seen that there has been provided in accordance with the invention, a clothesline assembly which comprises a clothesline proper, enlarged means at opposite ends of the clothesline for attaching the latter to holders or clothespins, and clothespin means interconnecting the clothesline with the attaching means.

The new clothesline structure may be suspended or extended in vertical as well as horizontal directions and other clothesline structures of the same nature may be extended between and may interconnect successively two clotheslines extending perpendicularly to a rod or line support. Thus a ladder-like clothesline asssembly is obtained which in accordance with the length and width of a garment to be dried may be employed within the minimum of space available in apartments, hotel rooms and the like.

Instead of knots, the clothesline may be provided at its ends with plastic abutment sleeves if desired, however, knots were found in practice to be quite suitable, inexpensive and not interfering with relatively thin fabrics or knitwear, such as stockings.

Various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and it is intended that such obvious changes and modifications be embraced by the annexed claim.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

A clothesline assembly comprising a lengthy cord terminating in two opposite ends, a substantially U-shaped member having one end of said cord attached thereto, a clothespin provided with a first opening for insertion of a portion of said cord adjacent said one end therein, said clothespin having clamping jaws provided with an aperture located between said clamping jaws when they are in abutting relation to each other, said aperture being of a diameter smaller than the diameter of .said member, said member being engaged in said aperture and being gripped by said jaws.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 294,240 Judd Feb. 26, 1884 1,144,430 Powers June 29, 1915 1,380,378 Hazlett June 7, 1921 1,489,923 *Budd Apr. 8, 1924 2,506,783 Fauteux May 9, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 708,427 Germany July 21, 1941 

